Wire in the Blood

A police psychologist pursues a serial killer who tortures homosexual victims in increasingly gruesome ways.

An unidentified girl’s body is discovered in a remote barn. When remains of another girl are found in the same place, Clinical Psychologist Dr Tony Hill immediately suspects a multiple killer.DI Carol Jordan tries to uncover the identities of the two girls, who are assumed to be runaways. She is called away to the home of popular television presenters Jack and Amanda Vance, who have found their dog murdered in their home. Amanda, already the target of vicious hate mail, fears for her life as Jordan and Hill discover the two cases could be connected.

The brutal killings of a middle-aged grandmother and a young girl bear the shocking hallmarks of the murder of 11-year-old Trudy Hibbert three years earlier. Paul Gregory, a known paedophile was found not guilty of Trudy’s abduction and murder, but police - who always suspected in his guilt - think he has started killing again.Dr Tony Hill is not convinced and when newspaper articles forced down the dead women’s throats reveal a bizarre connection with Gregory’s trial, Jordan and Hill must face the possibility there may be many more victims before the murderer is found.

Dr Tony Hill has finally persuaded the police to reopen the case of Maggie Thomas – his long standing child-killer patient, in order to try and recover the bodies for the victims’ families. Carol is less than impressed to discover that Tony has enlisted the help of one of his students, the bright and extremely attractive Laura Webster. But Laura’s abilities at criminal psychology become seriously challenged when her best friend Hattie is abducted. Tony very swiftly finds that the price for bending the rules with Laura to help her understand crime on the Maggie Thomas case gives her too much access to the work to find her friend. Loyalties fray as Tony finds himself in the middle of the unpredictable and unobtainable triangle of himself, Carol and Laura – and in so doing drives Maggie away from him. Meanwhile Hattie’s abductor has taken another victim, and while the police’s attention focuses on that, Maggie Thomas decides that she’s had enough of not being taken seriously, and Carol finds herself with another victim on her hands. Tony and Carol have become close to each other in their joint career, but do they always know when they are telling the truth?

When bodies are discovered at Norton Hotel during the digging of new foundations, Carol is sent in to work oversee whether they were in any way suspicious, or a legacy of the hotel’s previous incarnation as part of the local Abbey. But the discovery of the bodies coincides with the hotel being burned to the ground, and Carol realises that she’s got a very current case on her hands. She calls Tony in when it becomes apparent that someone is killing people now in a way that Norton hasn’t seen since it burned witches, like the rest of the country, back in the middle ages. Needless to say, Brandon isn’t too chuffed to have nothing to brief the press with but Tony’s theory that the same killer could somehow be reaching a long arm over five centuries of murder – Carol and Tony have their work cut out. The Darkness of Light forces Tony and Carol to challenge all that they thought they knew, as it is a case rich in the inexplicable. This killer forces them to test not only their science and experience, but also their very beliefs.

Carol is promoted to Detective Chief Inspector, but her new rank brings her no comfort as another tricky case lands on her desk. She is baffled when a murder takes place with all the hallmarks of killer and Bradfield gang boss Gavin Cochran, who is already banged up on remand for a murder that he is awaiting trial on. She needs Tony to work out whether he thinks this second murder is connected to the one Gavin has already committed. But events in Tony’s life are keeping him from his work with the police – Carol can’t believe it when she discovers that Tony is getting married – he didn’t even invite her to the wedding. Nonetheless, the killing goes on, and only their team work is going to stop it. Carol’s inquiry goes into freefall when she arrests Gavin’ s brother on suspicion that he is killing on the orders of his brother – but the arrest ends in a tussle that puts the suspect in a coma, and Carol on effective probation in her new rank. It also allows her prime suspect, Gavin Cochran, out on compassionate leave to see his brother in hospital, and while he is out another murder is committed. This killer seems to be untouchable, and although Tony devises a plot to ensnare him, it is dependant on Carol perjuring herself in court. She’s only just made DCI after a lifetime of trying; does she trust Tony enough to do it?